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Page 4
Without committing himself to a theory, M. de Bourbourg supposes that
one race--the Quiche--has passed through the whole North American
continent, erecting at different stages of its civilization those
gigantic and mysterious pyramids, the _tumuli_ of the Mississippi
Valley,--of whose origin the present Northern Indian tribes have
preserved no trace, and for whose erection no single American tribe
now would have the wealth or the superfluous labor. This race was
continually driven towards the South by more savage tribes, and it at
length reached its favorite seats and the height of its civilization in
Central America. In comparing the similar monuments of Southern Siberia,
and the dates of the immigration to the Aztec plateau, with those of
the first movements of the Huns and the great revolutions in Asia, an
indication is given, worthy of being followed up by the ethnologist,
of the Asiatic origin of the Central American tribes. The traditions,
monuments, customs, mythology, and astronomic systems all point to a
similar source.
The thorough study of the aboriginal races reveals the fact, that the
whole continent, from the Arctic regions to the Southern Pole, was
divided irregularly between two distinct families;--one nomadic
and savage, the other agricultural and semi-civilized; one with no
institutions or polity or organized religion, the other with regular
forms of government and hierarchical and religious systems. Though
differing so widely, and little associated with each other, they
possessed an analogous physical constitution, analogous customs, idioms,
and grammatical forms, many of which were entirely different from those
of the Old World.
At the period of the discovery of America, not a single tribe west of
the Rocky Mountains possessed the least agricultural skill. Whether the
superiority of the Central American and Mexican tribes was due to
more favorable circumstances and a more genial climate, or to the
instructions of foreign legislators, as their traditions relate, our
author does not decide. In his view, American agriculture originated in
Central America, and was not one of the sciences brought over by the
tribes who first emigrated from Asia.
Of the architectural ruins found in Central America M. de Bourbourg
says: "Among the edifices forgotten by Time in the forests of Mexico and
Central America are found architectural characteristics so different
from one another, that it is as impossible to attribute their
construction to one and the same people, as it is to suppose that they
were built at the same epoch.... The ruins that are the most ancient and
that have the most resemblance to one another are those which have been
discovered in the country of the Lacandous, the foundations of the city
of Mayapan, some buildings of Tulha, and the greater part of those
of Palenque; it is probable that they belong to the first period of
American civilization."--Vol. I. p. 85.
The truly historical records of Central America go back to a period but
little before the Christian era. Beyond that epoch, we behold through
the mists of legends, and in the defaced pictures and sculptures, a
hierarchical despotism sustained by the successors of the mysterious
Votan. The empire of the Votanides is at length ruined by its own vices
and by the attacks of a vigorous race, whose records and language have
come down even to our day,--the only race on the American continent
whose name has been preserved in the memory of the peoples after the
ruin of its power, the only one whose institutions have survived its own
existence,--the Xahoa, or Toltec.
Of all the American languages, the Nahuatl holds the highest place, for
its richness of expression and its sonorous tone,--adapting itself with
equal flexibility to the most sublime and analytic terms of metaphysics,
and to the uses of ordinary life, so that even at this day the
Englishman and the Spaniard employ its vocabulary for natural objects.
The traditions of the Nahoas describe their life in the distant Oriental
country from which they came:--"There they multiplied to a considerable
degree, and lived without civilization. They had not then acquired the
habit of separating themselves from the places which had seen them born;
they paid no tributes; and all spoke a single language. They worshipped
neither wood nor stone; they contented themselves with raising their
eyes to heaven and observing the law of the Creator. They waited with
respect for the rising of the sun, saluting with their invocations the
morning star."
This is their prayer, handed down in Indian tradition,--the oldest piece
extant of American liturgy:--"Hail, Creator and Former! Regard us!
Listen to us! Heart of Heaven! Heart of the Earth! do not leave us! Do
not abandon us, God of Heaven and Earth!... Grant us repose, a glorious
repose, peace and prosperity! the perfection of life and of our being
grant to us, O Hurakan!"
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